Terminator 4: Aftermath
by camerabugs
Summary: This is just my idea of what might happen after Judgment Day. The story is complete.
1. Chapter 1

This is my idea of what might have happened after T3. Please be patient if I made any mistakes. This is not canon. I don't know when Skynet invented different weapons, and I am not sure of the Terminator timeline. I do not own any of these characters and I am not making any money off of this. I just did it for fun. Please be kind in your reviews. I have very thin skin. I'm re-posting because I made a few changes and corrected a few mistakes and then I could not figure out how to get the chapters back in order.

T4- Aftermath

"It's been nearly six years since Judgment Day. Kate and I have been preparing for the day when we could come out of our refuge and begin to find other humans. We have listened to the radio so we know that there are other people out there, but we did not broadcast in case Skynet was listening. There was a huge stock of food down here. The government had seen to that. I guess the people that built this shelter actually expected there to be enough time for the President and other officials to get down here. This place is huge. There are a dozen private rooms that could be used for sleeping. There is a large dining area and kitchen, a large conference room and a lot of storage space. We also had plenty of water, medical supplies, power, and an extensive library to keep us from getting too bored. I mostly read books about war strategies and survival techniques. Kate read books about first aid and food storage and safety. Neither of us was too interested in fiction or poetry. We knew that the survival of the human race depended on us. Fortunately, the people who built this place also figured that the people down here might need weapons. A couple days after Judgment Day, Kate found a room that had been stocked with every kind of weapon imaginable, and ammunition enough to supply an army. We spent a lot of time practicing each of the weapons so we could defend ourselves against anything we might run into. There were also two Jeeps, several ¾ ton cargo trucks and a storage tank of gasoline. The people who built this place thought of everything. Everything except Skynet"

John Conner paused, before continuing his journal. He wanted to make sure that there was a record of the events that were taking place. He heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Kate enter the room. She looked different than when they found themselves thrown together by the events leading up to Judgment Day. She had lost weight, and the light was gone from her eyes. She looked serious all of the time now. If he was honest with himself, he knew he looked a lot different too. It's amazing what the end of the world will do to a person. It had taken them both a long time to finally accept the fact that whether they liked it or not, they were the leaders of the resistance against the machines.

Kate moved closer to John, sat down next to him, and took his hand. They looked at each other for a few moments, and then John spoke, "I think it's time to go out and see if we can find anyone."

Kate looked at him for a moment, and then reluctantly agreed. She had gotten used to the safety of their shelter and was afraid to venture out. "When do you want to go?" she asked.

"We will need a few days to get some supplies together. But first I would like to just go out and see how things look. You know, just to be sure it's safe."

"I'll go with you." Kate replied.

"No, I want you to stay down here until I see what is going on out there. We don't know what's out there."

Early the next morning John and Kate approached the elevator that would take him to the entrance to the shelter. John was carrying a Remington 870 model shotgun and a .357 Magnum with three extra clips. He also had a bag containing hand grenades. He knew Skynet hadn't had the time to invent the Terminators, but he didn't want to take any chances on what might be out there. They paused, hugged, and then John stepped on the elevator, pushed the button and watched Kate until the doors closed. He nervously watched the display on the elevator wall as he approached the surface. The doors opened and made his way down the corridor to the opening of the facility. He could see the devastation from the bombs and the battle between the two Terminators. As he made his way through the wreckage to the opening of the shelter, he looked around, ready to defend himself if he were attacked.

He squinted as he stepped through the opening of the cavern. It was the first time he had seen daylight in six years. Because clouds of dust and ash still partially blocked the sun, it was cold Even though he knew that the bombs had destroyed nearly everything, he was still stunned by what he saw. Ash covered everything as far as the eye could see. He stood there for several minutes before venturing out into the open. Nothing was moving, and there were no tracks in the ash. No longer concerned that he was in immediate danger from attack, he walked further from the entrance, his boots crunching on the charred debris. After looking around for a few minutes, he turned to go back to the elevator. He tripped over something. Looking down he saw the head of the Terminator that had saved his life. He picked it up and continued on to the elevator. He took it down to the level where Kate was waiting for him. Kate had hidden when he went to the surface. Neither of them knew what to expect, so they agreed that she would hide and not tell him where she would be. Just in case. He called to her, using the code "Mike Kripke's basement". A few seconds later he heard her footsteps approaching. She entered the room with a look of apprehension mixed with relief. She was glad he was back safely, but worried about what he had seen.

"What's out there?" Kate asked.

"Nothing. No signs of people, no signs of machines. I think it is safe to go." John replied. He showed her the head of the Terminator. She looked at him for a moment. She had hoped that their protector had survived the blasts. She placed the head on a table in the conference room.


	2. Chapter 2

They sat down with a map to see where they should go. One of the broadcasts had come from a town called Porter. They decided to head in that direction since it was the closest broadcast site.

They spent the next few days packing up the Jeep with food, water, medical supplies, extra clothes, blankets and a shortwave radio. They also loaded several cans of gasoline because it would be almost impossible to find any along the way. They knew it would be quite a while before they could return to Crystal Peak. They decided to get some sleep before they left. They would travel by night and sleep by day. They would camp where ever they could find shelter so that their vehicle could not be seen. Early the next night, dressed in biohazard suits, they pulled out of the garage at the base of the mountain. This was Kate's first look at the devastation caused by the bombs. Even in the darkness it was more than she could comprehend. The Jeep made its way through the dust and ash. They had decided to head towards northern California. John figured that it would be better to stay away from larger cities that would have been primary targets. Driving was difficult because there were so many burned out vehicles blocking what was left of the roads. Fortunately the Jeep was able to drive in just about any terrain. They had to drive with their headlights off so they would not draw attention to themselves, but John had brought several pairs of night vision goggles so that he could see to drive. They drove for several hours before stopping for a break. The meal was eaten silently. Both were too overwhelmed to talk. After lunch, they climbed back into the vehicle and continued their journey. The suits made talking difficult so most of the journey was made in silence.

As they left the mountainous area and got closer to towns, the devastation grew worse. There was very little left. Buildings and trees were broken and burnt and cars had been tossed around by the explosions like they were children's toys. They saw the twisted remains of playgrounds and far too many charred human skeletons. There was absolutely no sign of life.

Morning was drawing near. John knew they had to find a safe place to sleep. He finally found grove of trees that was still partially intact to park the Jeep. He wanted to be sure that they were out of sight when they went to sleep. Kate fixed a quick meal of canned vegetables and Spam. Not the tastiest of meals, but it was filling. Since John was nervous about being out in the open he decided to stay up for a while and keep watch. Exhaustion finally got the better of him and he fell asleep. He woke several hours later to find Kate heating up some coffee on the campfire. She smiled at him and handed him a cup of coffee. He took the cup and drank the hot liquid, grateful for its warmth. It was cool and damp out. Before Judgment Day he had slept outside a lot of the time.

He had gotten spoiled by six years of sleeping in a soft bed.

After breakfast they packed up the Jeep and continued on their journey. Kate looked at the map, giving John directions that would hopefully lead them to the voices they had heard. They hoped that they could not only find them, but convince them to come back to Crystal Peak with them. John was still hesitant to use the radio because he didn't want Skynet to find them.

They had been on the road for almost a week when they noticed that as they moved away from the larger cities the damage from the bombs began to decrease somewhat. There were buildings that were partially intact, the vegetation was not totally burned and there were vehicles that had not been destroyed. After traveling for a few more days they arrived at their destination. It was almost daylight, when they stopped just outside of the Porter. John turned the vehicle off and turned to Kate. "I think you should get out here and hide until we know what we are dealing with."

Kate disagreed with him. "I think we should both go. They might be more relaxed if they see a woman with you. Besides, I don't think it's a good idea for us to separate."

John thought about it for a moment, and then agreed. He started the Jeep and continued driving. They had only been driving for a few minutes when they heard a shout. John stopped and put his hands on his gun in case the person wasn't friendly. Looking around, they saw a thin, ragged looking man approaching the vehicle, shouting, waving his arms and smiling. John and Kate stepped out of the vehicle and lowered the protective face masks on their suits. John kept the gun handy, just in case.

"Hello! Please stop!" He reached the vehicle and paused to catch his breath. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"My name is Kate, this is John. We've been looking for survivors."

"Well you found them. There are almost 120 of us here, including 17 children." replied the man. "My name is Bruce Kirby. Where did you come from? We never heard you on the radio." The man was so excited that he never paused between questions for answers.

"We were in a secure bunker when Judgment Day happened." Kate told him.

"Judgment Day? Is that what you call it? We just call it the end of the world." Bruce answered as he turned to look at their Jeep. "Nice set of wheels you have here. Where did you get it?"

John hesitated for a moment, still not sure if he could trust the man. "It was in the bunker."

As the three stood there, trying to figure out if they could trust each other, they heard shouts and approaching feet. They turned to see a group of 5 people running towards them. There were 3 men and 2 women. All were in their early to mid thirties.

"Bruce," exclaimed a woman who looked like she was in her early thirties, "Where did they come from?"

Bruce hesitated for a moment before answering her. "They **said** they were in a secure bunker when the bombs dropped"

John didn't care for the way the older man stressed the word "said" as if he wasn't sure whether to believe them.

Kate must have picked up on his tone too, because she explained "My father worked for the government, he sent us there when he realized the attack was going to happen."

There was a brief, awkward silence, then one of the men from the group introduced himself. "My name is Keith Reynolds "Would you like to meet the rest of our group?"

Kate and John climbed back into their Jeep and slowly followed the group back into town. They stopped in front of a church. One of the men entered the church; soon the bell rang three times. People began to emerge from different parts of town. They all began to talk excitedly when they saw John and Kate. Soon they were surrounded by at least 80 people, of all ages and races, all laughing and talking. Keith attempted to silence the group. "Okay everyone, quiet down and we can explain where our guests came from."

The group finally calmed down so that John could continue. "We need to get undercover before it's completely light"

The town had suffered a lot of damage, but not as much as many of the areas they had passed through. Glass was broken out of many of the buildings, some had been burned and others had collapsed. The people all were thin, and wore ragged, patched clothes. John and Kate removed their protective clothing, figuring that it would be safe since these people had survived all this time. They told John where to park the Jeep so it would be out of sight, and then lead them to the local hospital. 

"This has been our central meeting area." explained a woman who identified herself as Dr. Marie Eldridge. "We spent to much time here after the attacks it just seemed logical to continue meeting here. We set up the basement as a shelter in case the attacks started again"

A man who identified himself as Ben Weaver spoke up. "So, who are you and where do you come from?"

John spoke first. "My name is John Conner, this is Kate Brewster. We have been in a secure bunker in the Sierras for the past 6 years. We were there when the bombs dropped. We had a shortwave radio there and heard some of your broadcasts and decided it was time to come out and try to find you."

"But why didn't you answer us if you heard us?" asked a balding man who was wearing a faded t-shirt and slacks.

"Because we didn't want Skynet to hear us and know where we were." answered Kate.

"Skynet. What is Skynet?" asked a woman with blonde hair who introduced herself as Emily Gordon.

"Skynet is the computer program that is responsible for Judgment Day." John told her.

"A computer is responsible for what happened? We always thought terrorists attacked us!" said a frightened looking woman in the back.

Before John or Kate could answer her, Bruce stood up and almost shouted, "No computer did this! It had to be terrorists."

"Mr. Conner, do you have any proof that a computer program caused the war?" asked Emily Gordon.

"No, we don't," replied John. "At least not here."

"Then why should we believe you?" asked Bruce.

John looked at the man for a few moments, a part of him regretting that he and Kate had picked this particular town. "Where else do you think we got a Jeep and all of the equipment we have?"

The man didn't have an answer for that.

"But why would a computer attack like that?" asked Eddie Carmichael.

"It was given too much power. When it became self aware it decided that it didn't need humans anymore so it launched the bombs." replied Kate.

A silence fell over the group.

"So that is why you are so worried about being under cover during daylight?" asked Eddie.

"Yes, in case there are any patrols out." answered John.

"Where are your children?" asked Kate.

"They are in the school right now." Replied a woman named Dana Neely. "They stay inside most of the time. At first we were afraid of fallout, and then we heard stories about people being killed so we kept them inside."

They were both excited by the possibility of seeing children again. They knew it was even more important that they convince these people to get back to Crystal Peak with them so that the children would be safe.

John turned back to the group and asked, "How have you survived all this time? Do you have food? What about electricity?"

A man named Eddie Carmichael introduced himself and his wife Joanne, answered his questions. "It hasn't been easy. We figure the closest bombs hit about 500 miles from here. We had some fallout, and some damage from the shockwaves. We lost about 300 people to radiation. Those of us who survived were inside when the bombs fell. We've been surviving on canned foods that we either had here or we got from neighboring towns. Our power has been out since the attack."

They continued to talk until it started to get dark, stopping only for meals. The Carmichaels invited Kate and John to stay at their house. They had two children, the younger one, Sam, looked like he was about 10, and the older one was a girl named Abby about 13 years old.

Neither of them slept well that night. Even though they had been on the road for over a week they were unaccustomed to any noises other than the air conditioning or heating. They were not used to the creaking boards and crickets. Exhaustion finally took over and they both slept.

Sunlight streaming in the window woke John first. He watched Kate sleeping for several minutes before she woke too. After breakfast, they helped with the chores around the house. Kate helped cook breakfast and wash the dishes and John helped chop wood for the fire.

Later, they headed to the hospital for another meeting. Some of the adults were busy teaching school and taking care of the young children, but the others were free. John and Kate explained more about Skynet, and what was going to happen when it learned to build the Terminators and mass produce the HK's, if it hadn't already. The people listening to her stared at her with mixed expressions on their faces. Some looked shocked, others frightened, and still others had a look of disbelief.

Finally, a frightened looking man asked, "What can we do?"

John hesitated before answering. "I think everyone should pack up and come with us back to the shelter. There is plenty of room and a lot of food. You would all be safe when Skynet really makes its move."

The reaction to this was explosive. "No! We can't leave here!"

"How would we get there?"

"Why would we leave? We have everything we need here!"

"The war is over. We don't need to leave!"

John and Kate realized that they were going to have a difficult battle ahead of them, but they also understood that it was important to get these people to a safe place. They spent the next several days talking to people, trying to convince anyone to come back with them. Kate also spent some time with the children. She knew that she and John would eventually have children, but realized that this was not the time. They had a war to fight first.

As they got to know the people they continued to try to convince them to leave with them. Everyday while the children were in school they would meet in the hospital and discuss whether or not to leave Porter. They had been there almost two weeks when a helicopter flew over. John knew that it had to be Skynet. Some of the people ran out to attract the pilot's attention. John tried to stop them, but three got out before he could stop them. As they ran across the street to the park, the helicopter slowed and turned towards them. Suddenly it opened fire on the three people, killing them before they could turn back to safety.

"Let's get away from the doors. We don't want anyone to be able to see us." John shouted. He headed into the darkness of the hospital. The helicopter turned and began firing on the hospital sending wood splinters and shards of concrete flying in all directions. The people in the hospital ran further into the hospital, trying to get to safety.

"What was that?" asked Lisa Parker, a young woman who was trembling noticeably.

"That was Skynet." explained John.

"But how can computers fly a helicopter?" she asked.

John thought about it for a moment, and then answered, "They might have discovered the remote controlled helicopters that the government uses for surveillance or they programmed an HK to fly. Then they attached weapons to the helicopter so they could kill any humans they saw. I think we can expect more attacks. We have to assume that the helicopter was in communication with whoever sent it"

John was glad that they had parked the Jeep in a garage so that it was out of sight.

After retrieving the children from the school, the group decided to spend the night in the hospital basement, then get up early and start packing things for the trip to Crystal Peak. They no longer doubted John and Kate. John and a group of three other men went out and gather food and blankets for that night. They watched the sky carefully as they hurried to gather what they needed. No one slept very well that night. They all kept listening for more helicopters. By morning, they were all exhausted and edgy.

After they all had something to eat; John led the first group out into the open to finish packing for the trip.

John went to the local Army Surplus store to see what he could find that might help them on their trip. The store was pretty badly damaged, and had been picked over, but he found several things that would come in handy, including several large camouflage colored nets that they could cover up with if they needed to while they were on the road.

They loaded up everything they could find for the trip. Only a handful of vehicles still worked so most of the people would be walking. Only the elderly, small children and infirm would be able to ride.

They set out on their trip early the next night. There were a total of 103 adults and 17 children in their group, including John and Kate. John led the group in the Jeep. Kate walked, letting an older woman take her place. The back of the vehicle was crowded with children.

Traveling was slow. It had taken them over a week to get to Porter; John figured it would take at least twice that long to get back to Crystal Peak. People were quiet while they traveled. They were also cautious, spending much of their time watching the skies to see if they were about to be attacked. As they traveled, the people from Porter were able to see just what kind of devastation affected the rest of the country. They realized that they had been very lucky. They traveled as fast as they could, but it was difficult walking in the dark. They spent their days protected by underpasses or wherever they could find shelter. John always tried to find someplace that would offer some cover from Skynet. They cooked their meals early in the evenings or mornings so that they would not have fires after dark. A few times, late at night they heard planes and helicopters in the distance. The refuges huddled together in fear, hoping that they would not be discovered.

After a little over two weeks on the road, they arrived at Crystal Peak. They paused before entering the garage. As the doors slowly rumbled open, John put his hand on his weapon. He was worried that Skynet had found the shelter and had taken over in their absence. His worries proved unfounded. The group entered the garage and the doors slid shut with a heavy clang. They were safe for the time being. People were astonished by the size of the facility. Once they were inside the shelter, they were even more stunned by their surroundings.

John and some of the other men started unloading the vehicles while Kate took the women and children down to the main level.

"Let's get the children settled, and then we can start unpacking and decide where everyone is going to sleep."

The families were settled into the larger sleeping areas. The single men bunked together, as did the single women. The children who were orphans were put into a room together near the other families. The library was turned into a makeshift classroom for the kids.

After dinner, everyone settled into their beds and had the best night's sleep anyone had since they started their trip started. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. They would start training for the fight against Skynet. John had decided that he would work with this group for a few weeks, then head out and to find more survivors.

Kate and John were the first ones awake. They treasured their time alone together because they knew that it would be very limited now that they were not the only residents of Crystal Peak. They talked about the plans for the day for a while, and then got up to start the day. Some of the women prepared breakfast while Kate, John and the men discussed what needed to be done first. They decided to give the adults a tour of Crystal Peak. Two of the older women, both former teachers offered to stay with the children.

As they toured the complex, people were angered by the way the government had prepared for nuclear attack. They couldn't believe how well the facility was equipped. Even the ones who were uncertain about the existence of Skynet began to believe after the tour. Dr. Eldridge was thrilled at the medical area, glad that she finally had decent equipment to work with. The last stop on their tour was the weapons room. John knew that the adults needed to be trained on the various weapons they would need to use. There was a room at the base of the facility that was designed for target practice. The walls were thickly padded to keep bullets from ricocheting. They needed to get enough practice to be familiar with the weapons, but not waste too much ammunition. They would need it later. He also wanted them to know what Skynet had planned, and the types of weapons it would use. They also needed to know that the machines would have no pity. If they ran into a HK or Terminator, they would have to destroy it immediately, because they would have no second chance.

As the days passed the residents of Crystal Peak developed a routine. They would get up and have breakfast. After breakfast the children would be taken to the classroom where they would begin their lessons which included not only the usual subjects, but also things that they would need to know in order to survive Skynet. While the children were in school, the adults were also learning. John taught them what to expect in the battles they would have to fight, strategies and how to hide from the machines. Kate taught them how to fire weapons, clean and load them. They posted guards inside of the facility at every entrance so that they would not be surprised by an attack. There had been cameras outside of the facility before Judgment Day, but they had been destroyed in the attacks. Maggie Hall, a former resident of Porter was an electronics expert and was able to get the cameras replaced and working.

When John felt that this group was well trained, he began to prepare for another trip. He wanted to find as many survivors as he could before Skynet learned to make the Terminators. Kate would not go with him on this trip. She had decided to stay at Crystal Peak and continue training their soldiers. John would take three men with him; Jose Valenzuela, Paul Tanner and Ben Weaver. He felt that these were the healthiest and best trained out of the group.

They packed the Jeep and one of the trucks that had been brought from Porter with supplies enough to last two months. Hopefully they would not be gone that long. The men studied a map that had pins stuck in it to mark where radio broadcasts had been pick up. The decided on a town in southern Oregon called Timbercrest. It wasn't near any large city so hopefully damage would be kept to a minimum.

They left late one night in July. Kate had said her good-byes earlier in the day so she did not see them off. She hadn't had the courage to tell John that she was pregnant. She knew he would have worried about her so much he might have gotten distracted and not been as cautious as he needed to be.

John and his group traveled as far as they could each night. They always tried to find a place where they could camp and be undercover. They continued to watch the skies in case Skynet had any HKs, planes or helicopters in the air. They heard aircraft almost every day, but they were too far away to pose any threat. They took the camouflage netting in case there was no place to hide. The route they chose took them within a few miles of Porter. They weren't going through the town, but knew they could see it from a hilltop where they could camp. When it was light enough to see, they were astounded to see that the town was no longer there. It had been totally destroyed. All that was left was burned buildings and huge craters. Apparently Skynet had finished the job they started while the town was still inhabited. The group traveled in silence for the rest of the night.

After being on the road for nearly 3 weeks, they arrived at Timbercrest. Once again they were met by survivors who were overjoyed at seeing other people. There were only 45 thin and ragged people who survived the attacks. It didn't take much to convince them to return to Crystal Peak with John and his group. They had seen Skynet's work first hand when a nearby town was destroyed. Their leader was a former Air Force Colonel named James Perry. He was assisted by a man named Dennis Reese. John felt himself relax a little; he just met the man he believed was Kyle Reese's father. He had made the right decision in coming to Timbercrest. It took several days to gather what they would need to move to Crystal Peak. There was only one working vehicle in Timbercrest so everyone would have to walk, except the drivers and woman with a broken leg. Food was very scarce so there wasn't much of it to pack, but there were other useful items to bring such as candles, lanterns, water purification tablets and a large supply of MREs. There was a lot of food back at Crystal Peak, but it wouldn't last forever. James Perry had been preparing for something like this; stockpiling MREs, collecting weapons and ammunition, and preparing a bunker for him and his two sons, David who was 14 and Daniel who had just turned 16. He had raised his sons to be well trained in combat and survival techniques. Colonel Perry had known Kate's father in the Air Force and had been concerned about putting Skynet online. He was afraid of what could happen if a computer was in control of nuclear weapons.

It took over a month to get back to Crystal Peak. During their return trip they heard airborne HKs twice, but weren't close enough to be seen or picked up on infrared scanners.

While John and the other men were on their trip, Kate read as much as she could about pregnancy, especially about the affects of radiation on unborn children. She knew that she had been underground most of the time, but she was still worried about the weeks she had spent outside. Kate was trying to keep herself busy, helping out with the children, when she heard shouts. "They're back!"

She jumped to her feet and ran towards the elevator that would take her up to the garage level. As the doors to the elevator opened, she looked around for John. She saw him helping to unload the Jeep. He heard the elevator doors open and knew it would be Kate. He turned to see her standing in the elevator, her face pale with worry. Kate finally stepped off of the elevator and walked towards John. He stopped unloading the vehicle and took her into his arms. 

"I'm so glad that you are back." She told him, burying her face in his chest.

"I'm glad to be back." He replied, holding her closer.

When they finally let go of each other, he told her, "I have someone I want you to meet."

He turned to a dark haired man and said, "Dennis, this is Kate. Kate this is Dennis Reese."

Kate wasn't sure how to react to the name Reese. She knew he must be Kyle's father, but she also knew she couldn't let him know how important he was. That could change the future. "Good to meet you Dennis."

"Good to meet you too, Kate." He replied, then turned back to continue unloading the two vehicles. Before either of them could say anything, James Perry approached them and introduced himself to Kate.

"I'm terribly sorry about your father, Kate. I knew him for many years. He was one of the few people who I could trust with my misgivings about Skynet. He had his concerns too, but no one would listen to us. They were all so obsessed with getting that thing on line."

Kate's eyes filled with tears at the mention of her father. "Thank you Colonel Perry, my father lost his life because of Skynet. He made sure that John and I had a safe place to go when he knew that the bombs could not be stopped. I am glad to have you with us. Your experience will be a great asset."

Colonel Perry returned to his job of supervising the unloading of the vehicles. John and Kate talked about the trip for a few moments before John returned to his work too.

Later that evening, after the children were settled in bed, everyone met in the conference room. John gave everyone time to get acquainted, and then he took charge of the meeting. He got everyone quieted down, and then described what had happened to the town of Porter. He could hear people sobbing while he described what he had seen. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Skynet did exist, and would kill them all if it got the chance.

John decided that the people who had been there for a while would help train the new arrivals on weapons and what to expect from Skynet. They also decided to post double sentries at each entrance, and always make sure someone was listening to the radio.

John and Colonel Perry felt that it would be easier to maintain order and train people if they were structured in a military type organization. John, Kate and James Perry would have the rank of Colonel. At this point everyone else would be Corporals until they earned an advance in rank.

After the meeting, when John and Kate were alone in their room, Kate finally told John that she was pregnant. He was excited and frightened. He loved Kate and wanted to have children with her, but he also knew that they lived in a very dangerous world. They finally fell asleep in each other's arms.


	3. Chapter 3

As the weeks passed, the two groups grew to know each other, friendships grew, relationships started.

Dennis Reese met a woman from Timbercrest named Elizabeth Thatcher. They spent a lot of time working and training together and eventually fell in love.

During the day, the children went to school, and the adults prepared for the war. They listened to the radio and planned the next trip to find survivors. John and Colonel Perry taught them all they knew about combat tactics, surviving under adverse conditions, and hiding from the enemy. They also began rationing food and water since neither would last forever.

Everyone waited anxiously to see what Skynet would do.

One year after John and Kate returned with the first group, Kate went into labor. Even though she they had a doctor with her, she was terrified. John was with her every second. After 16 hours of labor, she gave birth to a daughter. They named her Sarah.

It had been over 7 years since Judgment Day. John knew they needed to find more survivors. He didn't know too much about the events that would take place after Judgment Day, but he knew it wouldn't be long before Skynet learned to make Terminators. They probably already had HKs built so they could begin searching for and exterminating humans.

John began preparing for another trip to find survivors. He was taking 7 men and 3 women with him, including Jose Valenzuela who had been with him on his previous trip. Jose had become an important advisor to John, and who had an amazing talent for planning trips to search for survivors. This time they were taking the ¾ ton cargo truck so more people could ride and they could take more supplies. They left one night in August. John was concerned they were leaving too late in the year and would get caught in heavy snowfall, but knew they were running out of time. This time they were heading east, towards Nevada. This would be a much longer trip. He didn't want to be away from Kate and Sarah that long, but knew leading the group was his responsibility.

They had been on the road for two weeks when they were attacked. They had set up camp in a narrow canyon with plenty of outcroppings for cover. It was early morning; the sun was just coming up. They heard the sound of gun fire. Three people were killed and two injured before anyone had a chance to react. "Get undercover!" yelled John, grabbing a gun as he ran for cover behind some rocks. He looked around to see where the attack was coming from. He expected to see a T1 or HK firing on them, instead he saw two men, armed with hunting rifles.

"Drop your weapons or we will kill all of you!" shouted one of the men.

"We're friendly!" responded John, hoping that they were too.

"I don't care. Drop your weapons."

John wasn't about to drop his weapons and be killed by these men. He hesitated for a few seconds, hoping to stall them until he could come up with an idea. The men fired on them again, but the group was protected by the rocks so no one was injured.

John aimed his weapon and shot at them, hitting one of the men and narrowly missing the other.

The uninjured man ran for cover behind some rocks.

"That wasn't a smart thing to do. We have you surrounded. Throw down your weapons and just walk away. All we want are your weapons and your vehicle."

John sighed in disgust. It was bad enough that they had to fight machines, but now they had to fight other people too.

"No. We can't do that. Look, my name is John Conner, we don't want to fight you, but we will if we have to. We have you out gunned, and we have a better place to fight from."

His reply was met with a burst of gunfire from the ledge above him. John knew that he had to do something, he didn't want to waste time being pinned down by these people, whoever they were. There were grenade launchers in the truck, if he could get to them.

Turning to Jose he said, "Cover me, I'm going for the grenade launchers."

Jose nodded and began firing his weapon, firing in different directions so that John was covered from all angles. John rushed to the Jeep and grabbed a grenade launcher and a bag of grenades. He hurried back to the cave just as their attackers began to fire on him. Bullets ricocheted off of the rocks, sending fragments flying everywhere.

Loading the weapon, John called out to their attackers, "I'm going to give you one more chance to surrender and leave us alone!"

The only answer was more shots fired.

John aimed the grenade launcher at the cliff where the first shots were fired from and fired it. The grenade landed on the cliff and exploded, throwing rocks in all directions. The man who had taken refuge on the cliff screamed as shrapnel like pieces of rocks pierced his skin.

"I've got a lot more of those!" shouted John.

"And I've got a lot more of these!" a voice shouted from behind a large rock. Just then a bottle exploded in flames a few feet from where John was hiding.

John ducked further back in the cave, trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe the cave wasn't the best place to be after all. If the group attacking them had Molotov cocktails they were sitting ducks.

"What kind of guarantee do we have that you won't kill us if we surrender?" John asked, trying to buy some time.

"You don't." replied their unseen attacker. "But we will kill you if you don't surrender."

Hoping that they didn't know how many people they had killed, John agreed to surrender. He turned to Robert Billings, "You stay here, keep us covered. When I give the signal, shoot as many of them as you can."

John motioned for the others to follow him out of the cave. They soon found themselves surrounded by 8 men and women, all heavily armed. They were told to drop their weapons.

"Where are the others?" asked a dirty, dangerous looking man who appeared to be about 35.

"Dead or too injured to make it out of the cave." answered John, hoping he sounded convincingly angry.

The man looked at John for a moment and then turned to one of his people and said, "Jake, check out the cave."

John knew it was now or never. He turned to the cave and said "Now!" Robert opened fire on the group, killing four and wounding one more before they could react. John and his group grabbed for their weapons as more gunfire erupted from the surrounding cliffs. Apparently not all of their attackers had come out into the open. 

"Get back into the cave!" John shouted, running for cover.

Once they were back in the cave they realized that they had lost one more person. Deciding that he had had enough of this situation, John turned to his fellow survivors. "Let's finish this."

He grabbed his grenade launcher, while the others used whatever weapons they had been able to grab during the initial attack. They all began firing at the surrounding cliffs, blasting anything that moved. After firing for almost a minute, John signaled them to stop. The silence was overwhelming, nothing moved, nothing made a sound. John waited for five minutes, and then started to go out to see if it was safe.

"Wait." said Jose. "Let me go out, it's too dangerous for you."

John hesitated, and then let his friend go. Carrying his gun, Jose stepped out of the cave and looked around, alert to any movement around him. When nothing happened, he motioned for the others. John and the others made their way out of the cave and began to search the area. They found the bodies of five people under the rubble of a rock wall that had collapsed when John fired a grenade at it. Just then they heard a low moan coming from the ledge above them. Shouldering his weapon, John led what was left of his group up the side of the canyon to the cliff. There they found the first man that John had shot. He was injured but conscious. John made sure he wasn't armed, and then headed to the truck to get a first aid kit.

While he was bandaging the man's wounds, he took the time to look the man over. He was in his mid 20's, with long dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was probably 6 feet tall and he was very thin. He wore dirty, ragged looking jeans, a black t-shirt and weather-beaten boots. John asked who he was and why his group had attacked them.

"My name is Billy Kincaid. We attacked you to get your truck and whatever you might have in it. We've been living in some caves nearby for the past few months. A bunch of us lived in Eagle Pass, Texas before everything went crazy. After that, Silas Ramsey became our leader. We've been wandering around, finding food and supplies, just trying to survive. We saw you all and figured we hit the jackpot."

"You could have just asked us for help. We're always looking for people to join us." responded John.

"Silas wasn't much for asking, or for joining. He just took what he wanted. If anyone disagreed with him, he just killed them"

John finished bandaging the man's injuries. "Well, what about you? Are you a joiner or should we just leave you here?"

Billy didn't seem to need to give it much thought. "I'll join your group; I sure don't want to be alone out here, not with them things wandering around."

John tensed up, "What things?" he asked.

"They look kind of like people, only they are silver machines. I think they are robots or something. We saw them for the first time about a year ago, when we were near what was left of Las Vegas. They were searching through the ruins; we didn't know what they were looking for until we saw them find some people. They killed them all. Since then we just did our best to stay out of their way."

"HKs." John whispered. "We'd better get back to Crystal Peak." Turning to Billy, he asked, "Are there anymore people from your group?"

"Nah, I'm the last one."

After getting the injured members of their party bandaged up, they loaded them in the truck and headed back to Crystal Peak. It took them almost two weeks to get back.


	4. Chapter 4

Kate was surprised when John and his search party returned weeks before they were expected, and without any new survivors.

"What happened? Where are the others?" asked Kate.

"We were attacked by a gang of thieves". John told her. "This is Billy Kincaid. He is the only one of them that survived. We will keep an eye on him for a while before we decided if we can trust him."

Kate became angry when she heard about the attack. She expected attacks by Skynet, but it never occurred to her that other people might kill them for their vehicles and supplies. "We can't take any more chances. We have to stay underground until we are ready to fight."

John reluctantly agreed. He had hoped to find more survivors before they had to start fighting Skynet, but realized now that he would have to make do with what he had.

After getting the injured people to the medical facility he had Billy placed in a storage room and put an armed guard on the room. He didn't want to take any chances with him until he got to know him better.

Early the next morning they all began training in earnest. They knew that they were the leaders in the fight against Skynet. They held a meeting and decided they had to risk using the radio since they couldn't get out to find more survivors.

They agreed that they would listen to see if they could find anyone fairly close to them, then talk to them for a while before disclosing their location. They wanted to be sure they were talking to humans and that Skynet was not listening to them.

John took the first shift at the radio. He listened to various channels for two hours before turning over the radio to Curtis Elliot, a middle aged man who had lost his family in the attack on Timberlake. Curt was glad to have something to do to make him feel useful again. After loosing his family, he had lost interest in life. He was starting to feel useful again. He had done a lot of hunting before the attacks so he was able to help train people in the use of weapons too.

He listened to the radio, hoping to find someone out there who was close enough to travel to Crystal Peak. Just as his shift was almost over, he heard a voice. "This is Alice Mitchell. Is anyone out there? Can anyone hear me? I'm broadcasting from Colorado."

Jumping from his chair, Curt called to John. "We just got a broadcast from a woman in Colorado."

Several people, including John hurried into the radio room. They all huddled around the radio to see if the woman would broadcast again.

"I repeat, this is Alice Mitchell, I am broadcasting from Colorado. If there is anyone out there, please answer me."

John hesitated, and then picked up the microphone. "We hear you, Ms. Mitchell."

The woman's relief was apparent even over the radio. "Oh, thank goodness." She said.   
"We have been trying to find other people since the attacks. Who are you, and what is your location?" 

"We are a fairly small group of people," John replied, "We are not ready to let you know where we are, yet."

The woman on the other end hesitated, and then replied. "I understand. She went on to explain that there were 43 people in their group, 32 adults and 11 children. They had lived in New Mexico before the attacks, and had moved to their present location after loosing contact with a group in Utah. The two groups had been in contact almost every day. One day, the Utah group stopped broadcasting. Alice's group decided to play it safe and move. They were barely surviving, having almost run out of food. They used the last of their medical supplies when two of them members were injured in an accident when they went out to look for food. They knew they would not survive another winter.

John, Jose and Dennis looked at each other. They knew they had to help these people, but they couldn't give out their location. John told her about their trips out to find survivors, how they traveled by night, slept during the day, and how they had been attacked by thieves the last time they went out.

He talked to Alice Mitchell for a few more minutes before agreeing to talk to her at the same time the next day. Hopefully by then they could come up with some way of helping her group.

That night they held a meeting to see if anyone could figure out how they could help the group of people in Colorado without disclosing anyone's location to Skynet, if it was listening. They finally decided to have Alice Mitchell's group meet part of their group at Great Salt Lake. Their group would then bring Alice's group to Crystal Peak.

The next evening, at the same time, they were on the radio talking to Alice Mitchell. This time she had three other people from her group with her: Arthur Foley, Patrick Brooks and Dena Erickson. These three people had helped Alice organize the group for the move from New Mexico to Colorado.

John introduced the members of his group to Alice and her group, and then the two groups shared their survival stories. Finally, John decided to ask Alice's group to meet them at Great Salt Lake. Her group was thrilled by the prospect of joining John's group, and agreed immediately to meet them. It would take Alice's group a couple weeks to get ready and make the trip to Utah so they agreed to meet at Great Salt Lake in two weeks.

Alice Mitchell turned off the radio and leaned back in her chair. She had a lot of work to do in a very little time. Her group would have to be ready to leave in a couple of days so they would have plenty of time to get to Great Salt Lake. She knew they would have to travel by night. She turned to Arthur and Dena, "We will have to work hard to get ready. "Dena, I want you to get the food organized and packed. Arthur, I want you to make sure the vehicles are ready. Tell Paul Barrett to let everyone know that we will leave Thursday night."

John turned to Jose and Dennis, "Okay, you two know the drill. We will be leaving Thursday night. Jose, I want you, Kevin Hale, Gus Hadley, and Barb Carter to go with me. Dennis, I want you to take care of things here." John didn't want to take a chance on having anything happen to Dennis.

Just after dark on Thursday, John and his group left Crystal Peak. They took one of the trucks so that no one would have to walk, this would cut down on travel time.

Their trip was uneventful. They were all very cautious, aware that they could be attacked by a T-1 or an HK. They took their time so that they would not make any mistakes that could draw Skynet's attention.

John's group arrived at Great Salt Lake in just under 2 weeks. They decided to make camp in a bombed out parking garage that was about a mile from the lake. The garage would provide shelter from Skynet and the weather. They would cook their meals during the day so their fire would not attract attention. Sentries were posted to keep an eye out for the group from Colorado, and to watch for Skynet.

Three days after John's group arrived, Barb Carter spotted the group just as it was getting daylight. There were 2 vehicles, loaded with supplies. Most of the people were walking; a few children were riding in the vehicles. Gus Hadley had volunteered to meet them and let them know where his group was hiding. He left the parking garage from the back entrance, near a large grove of charred and broken trees.

It was dark before he got to the group. He didn't want to surprise them and get shot, so he called out just before he got to them. A gray haired woman, who looked like she was in her mid 50's, carrying a shotgun turned and aimed her weapon at him. For a moment, Gus thought she was going to shoot him.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Gus, from Crystal Peak."

She lowered the weapon. "Good to meet you Gus."

"I'll lead you to John and the rest of our group."

They followed him back to the parking garage. The two groups got to know each other, and then decided to rest that day and then leave for Crystal Peak that night.

They awoke a few hours later and packed the truck. They started out slowly since there were so many people walking. They arrived late one night when most of the residents of Crystal Peak were already asleep. The only people that were awake were sentries that were on duty and a few people who were listening to the radio, or were just too restless to sleep.

They drove the vehicles into the garage area and waited while all of the people walking had entered before they closed the doors. They decided to let the new group sleep on the floor wherever they could find a space until morning. After getting everyone settled with blankets or sleeping bags, John headed towards his room to see Kate and Sarah.


	5. Chapter 5

It was getting crowded in the shelter. There were 175 people there now, and they were going to run out of food and water if they didn't do something. Carol Phillips, an avid gardener before the attacks, was working on a way to plant vegetable seeds in pots on a lower level and using indoor lighting as their light source. She had brought a few packets of seeds with her, hoping she could plant a garden somewhere.

John knew that it was going to get harder to train the new people too because of the limited space, but he knew he could count on Jose and Dennis to help him. John had come to depend on the two men. While he was gone Dennis had proposed to Elizabeth, who had recently discovered that she was pregnant. There was no minister to make the marriage legal so he asked John to perform the ceremony.

Although John still didn't trust Billy completely, he decided to give him a little more freedom. He thought that he was probably just a follower of Silas Ramsey and probably was not a threat to the group. Besides, he was a strong man who could be put to work and could be a good fighter.

They continued to practice their weapons and train in combat techniques for several months. John and Kate knew that it was getting close to the time when they needed to move from their safe bunker to Los Angeles where they could battle Skynet.

At their nightly meeting, John and Kate suggested that they start getting ready to make the move to Los Angeles. This was met by silence from the group. No one really wanted to leave the safety of the bunker.

It was Billy who broke the silence, "I agree, we can just hide here like a bunch of scared kids. It's time to fight back, take back what is ours!"

The others began murmuring in agreement.

"He's right. We have to fight Skynet. That's what we have been getting ready for." said Jose.

Kate suggested that they finally break down and use the radio to see if they could contact anyone in the military. Trained soldiers would be a great asset when they got to L.A. and began fighting Skynet.

There was a reference book near the radio that listed various frequencies for all of the military installations around the country. They decided that Kate should begin trying to make contact since she knew more about the military than anyone other than Colonel Perry.

She had only been scanning frequencies for a few hours when she found a group of soldiers that were excited to finally hear a human voice.

"Hello!" they shouted, laughing and cheering. "Where are you?"

Kate hesitated for a moment, and then answered, "We are in California. Where are you?"

"We are in Corpus Christi, Texas, at a Naval Air Station. You are the first people we have heard from in a long time. We used to be in contact with a group of people near Austin, but they stopped broadcasting."

"My name is Kate; I'm here with my husband John, Colonel James Perry and Dennis Reese. What is your name?"

My name is Carlos Valdez. I've got Michael Quintanilla and David Harper with me. Corpus Christi was not a primary target so we had quite a few survivors here. A lot of people left the base after the attacks, those of us who didn't have any place to go stayed here. We have a roof over our heads and a bay to get fish out of. It's not too bad here."

"Look, Carlos, we don't have a lot of time to talk. What do you know about this war and how it started?"

"Well, Kate, we don't know much of anything about how it stared. We do know that there are some kinds of robots going around killing people. We had a guy come in from the Houston area a couple weeks ago. He was telling us about how dozens of silver robots swarmed what was left of the city and killed a lot of people."

"Those are Hunter-Killers created by Skynet. Skynet is a computer program that started this war; its main purpose is to destroy all human life. We have to get as many people together and fight it." Kate answered. She paused, and then asked, "Would your group be interested in joining us?"

"I don't know," Carlos replied. "We're safe here, the weather is good and the fishing is great."

"Carlos, this is John Conner. It's just a matter of time before those robots find you. That's there job. They will try to find every human on this planet and kill them."

"I don't know, I still think we are safe here. Sorry, but you will have to look somewhere else for your help."

"Okay, but if you change your mind, we are headed for the city of angels in just a few weeks." replied John.

They took turns with the radio, hoping that they would find a group that was willing to join them.

Late one night while Dennis was on the radio and he came across a group of former army reservists. They had survived because their unit had already left the base when the attacks came. They went to their homes, gathered their families and headed into the mountains of northern Washington with as many supplies as they could carry. Their leader, a man named Jason Fletcher had sufficient survival training to keep them all alive through the difficult winter months. They had built cabins for shelter and had planted gardens to supplement their food supply. Hunting and fishing also helped to keep them fed. John figured they were probably doing better than most of the people who had survived. On one of their foraging expeditions they had seen first hand what the HKs could do, so they were very willing to join John's group and move to L.A. to fight Skynet. John was not willing to give out their present location so the two groups agreed to meet in L.A. in six weeks. This would give John's group time to pack, make the trip and find some type of shelter before the other group arrived.

They decided that they would begin packing what they would need for the trip. They would load all of the vehicles with food, water, medical supplies weapons, ammunition and whatever else they might need. The youngest children would be the only ones allowed to ride. It took them two weeks to pack everything. It was hard leaving the security of the bunker, but they knew they had to begin the fight against Skynet.

They finished all of their preparations and rested during the day. They would be leaving after dark that night. After eating their evening meal, they finished loading the vehicles with their supplies and started their journey to L.A. As the doors to the bunker rumbled shut and the vehicles pulled away from the garage, John and Kate felt sad to be leaving the only home they had had together.


	6. Chapter 6

It took them over five weeks to make the trip to Los Angeles. During the trip they lost two people to accidents, one to a heart attack and one to food poisoning. Elizabeth Reese gave birth to a beautiful baby boy while they were on the road. She was in labor for 12 hours. Elizabeth and Dennis decided to name their son Kyle. The trip was exhausting. No one was use to walking very far, especially at night. The roads were badly damaged and people had a hard time walking without tripping. Each morning when they made camp everyone was so exhausted they could hardly force themselves to eat before they fell asleep. The people were hot, dusty and on edge from watching for HKs.

They arrived late one night. The devastation in Los Angeles was overwhelming. There were no buildings standing. As far as the eye could see there was only ruins from the buildings; chunks of concrete, broken glass and twisted rebar. There were thousands of skeletons, all burnt, crushed and covered in ash. Neither John nor Kate could recognize anything about the city they had lived in most of their lives. John hoped to find a subway entrance so that he could get all of his people underground before they were attacked. He knew he had to find something before daylight exposed them to Skynet.

He was able to find a parking garage that had not collapsed completely that they could take refuge in. They found signs that there were other humans in the area. There were places where campfires had been built, empty food cans, and cast off clothing littering the area. Someone had spray painted "people live!" on the wall in red spray paint. John hoped that they could find some of these survivors and have them join in the fight against Skynet.

John had everyone but a few men stay with the vehicles while he and the small group scouted the area. He didn't like going out during the day, but they would not be able to search effectively after dark. They searched for over three hours before finding an entrance to the subway that they could remove enough rubble from so they could all get inside. John led them down into the tunnel and looked around. They found tunnels, service areas and platforms that were still intact. 

"There's plenty of room for all of us down here." John said.

After returning to the parking garage, John decided that they should spend the rest of the day in the garage and then make the move that evening. They posted 10 heavily armed sentries to keep everyone safe while they slept. They put the campfires out and covered the openings with boards and bricks.

They all awoke just before it got dark, ate, and then they began moving small groups of people into the subway. Their vehicles would have to be left where they were for the time being.

Using their lanterns and flashlights they began setting up their new home. They put the children in the service areas that were not accessible from the outside. Weapons and ammunition were also placed in hidden service areas.

After thoroughly scouting the tunnels, it was discovered that there were only 5 tunnels that were still open to the outside. Sentries would be posted round the clock at these openings until three of them could be sealed. There was a subway train tunnel that led to Union Station. From there they could travel to different parts of the city, all without going above ground. This would have to be heavily guarded because he knew that Skynet could get to them from this entrance.

Teams would be sent out to see if they could scavenge for any items that might be useful. Wood was going to be needed for cooking and heating fires. Metal would be useful to make weapons. They were also going to need water eventually.

John, Kate and Sarah settled into their alcove. John had found a few sheets of plywood he could use to build walls for a little privacy. Kate had John fix up an area for Elizabeth, Dennis and Kyle that was close by. Elizabeth was spending all of her time and energy on Kyle while Dennis was helping to make their tunnel secure.

A small generator that was brought from Crystal Peak was set up on one of the subway platforms near the hospital. It would have enough power to provide lights to the hospital in case of an emergency. The gasoline was drained from all but one vehicle and stored near the generator.

After several days of scrounging they found enough metal bars, bricks and wood to block off three of the entrances to the subway. The entrances needed to be hidden, but fairly easy to open in case of an emergency. The entrances that were not blocked were hidden with boards.

The scavenger groups were made up of 3 people per group, which went out daily, at different times to see if they could find anything useful. They also looked for any sign of Skynet. It was difficult, searching through the ruins, walking over the skeletons, and trying to concentrate on what had to be done without letting the death and destruction overwhelm them.

A week after they arrived in L.A., Jason Fletcher's group arrived from Washington. There were 23 people in his group, including 8 children. John was grateful for the additional soldiers. Their training would be a great asset in the fight against Skynet.

The two groups of people began to adapt to their surroundings. They spent their days being trained for the battle against Skynet, and their evenings on patrol.

Carole Phillips had saved some of her seeds and was able to plant a small garden underneath a vent so the plants would get some sunshine.

Dr. Eldridge set up an area for a hospital in one of the vacant service areas. She knew that the hospital would be one of the most important areas after the fight with Skynet began. One of the reservists from Washington, a man named Samuel Dalton, had been trained as a medic and would help her treat any injured patients.

A school area was set up for the children. A cemetery was set up a short distance from their refuge.

John didn't want to take a chance using walkie-talkies and being overheard by Skynet so they set up a system for communication that involved using the children. Each sentry post had two children of at least 10 years old assigned to it. These children were used to pass messages back and forth. They were could move quicker than the adults, fit in smaller pipes so they could get around easier, and it was never too early to train them for being on sentry duty.

Colonel Perry continued to train his soldiers. He showed them how to scout for HKs without being seen, set traps and make weapons out of scraps of metal, chunks of concrete, whatever they could find.

Two months had passed since their arrival in Los Angeles; John was out scouting with his group when they heard weapons being fired. They hid behind the wreckage of a building when they heard something approaching. John peered out from behind the piles of concrete and saw three heavily armed silver robots searching for humans in the rubble. They were and walked upright like humans and looked like Terminators without skin. He had never seen anything like them. They must be the bipedal HKs the other groups had told him about. John waited until they got just passed their hiding place, and then motioned for his people to fire. Two of the HKs were destroyed, the third one turned and fired on the group, killing a young woman named Teri Bowen. David Perry was able to destroy it before it killed anyone else.

"Let's get out of here." John ordered.

They picked up Teri Bowen and made their way back to the tunnel.

The sentries met them at the gate. "What happened?"

"We ran into some HKs. One of them killed Teri before we could destroy it." answered David.

"I want the sentries doubled, and I want them to carry extra clips of the armor piercing rounds." ordered John.

The next night they buried Teri. She was the first fatality since their move to Los Angeles. John knew she would not be there last.


	7. Chapter 7

The same night John led another group out to see if they could find any humans. They traveled short distances, taking refuge wherever they could. They had been out for a little over an hour when they heard someone or something moving through the broken buildings. John motioned for them to take cover. A few moments later they heard voices. John hesitated, and then decided that the only way they would know if there were other humans in the area was to make their presence known. He stepped out from his hiding place and saw three human males, all in their mid-30's. When they saw John the reacted by aiming their weapons at him; sawed off shotguns in poor condition.

"Stop! We are not your enemy." John told them. He motioned for the others to come out of hiding.

"Who are you?" asked the man who appeared to be their leader. He was an African American male, about six feet tall.

"My name is John Conner. This is Brian McKay, Jason Fletcher, and Luis Vega. We came from a government shelter in Eastern California. I promise you we are harmless."

The three men looked at him for a few seconds. John wasn't sure if they believed him, or if they were going to kill him for his weapon. He was already regretting exposing himself to this danger when the leader motioned to the others to lower their weapons. John did the same with his group.

"My name is Elijah Brown. This is Tom Krueger and Alex Gonzalez."

The two groups exchanged their "hello's", still not certain what to think of each other. They decided that it was not a good idea to continue their conversation out in the open, so they headed for a pile of concrete that would protect them

"How long have you been in L.A.?" asked Elijah Brown.

"About 2 months." replied John. "How did you survive the bombs?"

"Some of us were in the subways when the bombs dropped. Others just came to L.A. afterwards. What about you?"

"Like I said, some of us were in a government bomb shelter. We waited until we thought it was safe to come out, and then we did some scouting. We found people to join us. We decided that it was time to fight so we came here hoping to find shelter and more people to fight." explained John.

The two groups continued to talk. John discovered that Elijah's group was made up of about 38 people. They had been living in storm drains and subway tunnels, barely existing on whatever canned food they could scrounge up. They didn't know the name of their enemy, but they did know that the war wasn't over. Elijah explained that they had destroyed a dozen or so "robots", and that they had lost 18 people since they got together. They didn't go out much during the day because they had been attacked by flying machines. John explained to them about Skynet, Terminators and HKs. He was astounded by the poor health of the group. They were all terribly thin and ragged looking. There were only 5 children in the group. John couldn't wait to get them below and get a decent meal into them.

After talking for almost 2 hours, John asked them to meet at the same place the next day. He also wanted them to think about moving down into the subway.

When they arrived back at the tunnels John told Kate that they had found a group of survivors. She was excited by the fact that there would be more soldiers to fight Skynet and hoped that they would join them.

John spent a restless rest time, worrying about the safety of his people and wondering if the other group would agree to join them. He thought they would since they were barely surviving on their own.

The next night John and his group met Elijah and his group.

"Have you decided whether to join us?" asked John.

"We'll join you, but we have to be able to make decisions too. We don't want to just be told what to do all of the time."

"Agreed. Everyone has a say in what we do, but remember, I am in charge. What I say goes. But I will listen to your opinions. You know the area better than we do."

Elijah's group had packed their few belongings and was ready to move into the tunnels. They would maintain Elijah's tunnels as a back up refuge in case patrols were attacked and needed a place to hide. This way they would not lead the HKs back to the main base.

He signaled them, and they all headed for the subway, and their new home.

They entered the tunnel and the sentries boarded it up behind them. John introduced Elijah to Kate. They got them fed and settled into their sleeping areas.

Bedding and food were becoming a problem. John decided that a group needed to go back to Crystal Peak and bring the remaining food, bedding and anything else they could find they could use. Brian McKay would lead the group, taking Elijah, Patrick Brooks, Julie Baker and Eddie Carmichael. They would take the largest vehicle they had and load it completely with supplies.

They took a few cans of gasoline and enough food to get them back to Crystal Peak and left late at night. They had to be extra cautious because Skynet had put out extra patrols of airborne HKs since they had arrived and destroyed so many HKs.

They arrived at Crystal Peak a little less than two weeks after they started out. They were relieved to see no trace of Skynet when they arrived. They spent three days gathering up what they would need and loading it on the truck. The return trip took longer since all but the driver had to walk. There were several times when they heard helicopters and HKs and had to hide wherever they could find shelter.

One day, just before noon one of the sentries reported that he heard movement in the bushes. He woke everyone in camp so they could be ready to fight if it was Skynet. Weapons were drawn and pointed towards the sound. A few seconds later a scrawny golden retriever puppy with matter fur and mud on its coat, emerged from the weeds. Julie Baker was the first to get to it. She picked it up, "Oh, you poor little thing. You look like you haven't ever had a decent meal."

The others gathered around it, all wanting to pet and hold the tiny animal.

"Let's get is something to eat." said Patrick as he headed for their food supplies. He found some canned ham and gave it to the puppy that wolfed it down in no time.

"Do you think there are any more puppies around, or is he the only one?" asked Julie. "Why don't we look around, see if we can find anymore from his litter?"

Brian agreed, but reminded them to be careful.

They scouted area and just as they were about to give up they heard whimpering from a hollow log. Patrick got down on his hands and knees and peered inside the log and saw two more Lab puppies, equally thin and matted. They had to coax them out with some ham. They looked around for a few minutes, but they could not find anymore puppies, or their mother.

They took the puppies back to camp and reunited them with their lost sibling. After cleaning the three animals up, Julie made some makeshift collars and leashes for them so they would not get away from them. These three dogs would be a great help in the battle against Skynet.

They arrived back in L.A. after dark and parked the truck in the same garage and covered it with camouflage netting. Taking the three dogs and what they could carry, they headed back to the subway to get help with the rest of the supplies.

When they arrived back at the subway, they were surrounded by people who wanted to pet the dogs. "Where did you find them?" asked Kate.

Brian explained how they found the dogs, and that they had looked around but couldn't find more.

John was especially pleased by their luck in finding these animals. After much discussion they decided to name them Max, Jada and Cleo. The children were thrilled to have puppies to play with, but John explained that the dogs would have to be trained to help in the fight against Skynet. When he saw how disappointed they were, he relented and said they could take care of the puppies until they were healthy again. Since Kate had worked with dogs at the vet's office, she was in charge of making sure the puppies were well taken care of.

The supplies were unloaded from the truck and brought down to the tunnels. There were cases of food, blankets, pillows, and books. John was hoping that they could make at least one more trip back to Crystal Peak to bring a few more things they would need, but that would have to wait until autumn. The nights were too short now to make long trips.

As the days passed the puppies gained weight. Their coats began to shine and they had the energy puppies should have. John decided it was time to start their training. He wanted them to be gentle with humans, but alert them to the presence of Terminators.


	8. Chapter 8

They had been in Los Angeles for just under a year, John continued to send patrols out at night. So far they had destroyed 23 bipedal HKs and 4 T-1s. They had lost 14 people to attacks; one from a biped HK, and the others from an airborne HK that had targeted them through infrared scans. So far Skynet did not know where they were hiding. One night while they were out, they checked out the parking garage where they had left their vehicles. All that was left was the twisted, burned remains of the vehicles. Skynet had found where they were hidden and destroyed them. From now on they would have to travel on foot.

Sarah was almost 2, Kyle was about to celebrate his first birthday. John was very protective of him. He knew that he owed his existence to a child that was about 30 years younger than him.

They continued to monitor the radio they had brought with them from Crystal Peak. They only used it for one hour a day so that the batteries would last longer. Late one evening they received a message from Carlos Valdez. He and his group were on their way to L.A. from Texas. They wanted to join John's group and needed directions on how to get to them. John told them that he would have a group meet them on the southeastern outskirts of L.A. in two weeks.

The two groups met at the agreed upon location two weeks later. Carlos had Michael Quintanilla and David Harper with him, along with a couple dozen adults and 10 children.

"What made you change your mind and join us?" asked John.

"This Skynet you were talking about decided it needed fuel so it sent a ship load of those HKs to the refineries near the Corpus Christi ship channel. Some of our people were fishing in the area and saw the ship come in. They hid real quick and watched to see what would happen. Those monsters started pumping fuel from the tanks to the ship. They must have seen some of our people because the next thing we knew we were under attack. A bunch of us took refuge out on Mustang Island until they left, and then we decided that we were not so safe after all. So, we decided to join you guys and fight Skynet." replied Carlos.

"Yeah, they took all the fuel they needed and then started bombing the refineries and everything else in the area that was still standing." added David.

"After we got in touch with you, we headed south to Mexico, and then made our way here." Carlos continued.

"Well, we are glad to have you. We can always use the extra fighters and you all look like you could use some rest and food." John said.

"John, there are people in Mexico that are in secluded areas and they are able to plant gardens and raise livestock. We might be able to get down there and get some food from them" reported Carlos.

"That's a great idea, Carlos. After you have gotten some rest maybe you could lead a group down there and bring back some supplies"

He led the new group back to the tunnels and introduced them to everyone. John would let them rest for a couple of days and then he would begin training them too.

A few nights later while out on patrol the group had to hide under some slabs of concrete and wait for airborne HKs to pass. While they were waiting they heard what sounded like an army headed their way. John made his way out so that he could see what was going on. What he saw made his blood run cold. There were dozens of bipedal HKs, all heavily armed, searching for human survivors. He had never seen so many HKs before. They decided to get back to the tunnels and seal up the entrances. They made it about halfway back before coming under attack by two HKs. Tom Krueger and Stephen Blake were killed immediately. Gus and Patrick Brooks fired on the HKs, destroying both. Before they could celebrate two more HKs appeared and attacked their group. John watched in horror as Dennis Reese was killed. In his rage, John began firing on them, destroying both of the machines before his comrades could react. They quickly picked up their fallen friends and made their way back to the shelter and warned the sentries about the HKs. They all hurriedly barricaded the entrances and let the others know what was going on. He had the children moved into hidden service areas, all of the adults were given weapons in case Skynet found out where they were. Then he found Elizabeth and told her that Dennis had been killed while on patrol. Kate took the devastated woman back to her sleeping area and stayed with her all night.

It was one of the longest nights anyone could remember. All they could do was to sit in the dark and wait quietly, hoping that they would not be found. They could hear the HKs moving about in the dark, shooting at shadows, but none of them found the human's hiding place. Only the children got any sleep that night. John knew that the battle with the machines had really begun. Skynet was beginning to mass produce HKs. Soon they would start making Terminators. 

The next day John decided that they should all stay inside for a few more nights. This would give Skynet a chance to search the area again. Hopefully, when no one was found it would move the HKs to a different part of the city.

They spent a week underground, trying to be as quiet as possible. John had posted extra sentries at each entrance. He also made sure that everyone had access to extra weapons. They continued to hear the HKs patrolling night and day, and there were more airborne HKs in the area than there had been. Worrying about the HKs kept him from sleeping so he spent his time checking on the sentries. He liked to make sure everyone was on their toes and staying out of site of Skynet's machines. On one of these nights, he was checking on the sentries and caught one of them smoking a cigarette.

"Put that thing out now, mister!" he yelled at the guard.

"Why?" asked the man. "And please don't tell me it's not good for my health. My life expectancy isn't exactly great."

"I'm not worried about your health. HKs could zero in on the smell of the smoke or the heat and know where we are. They could see the glow of the tip of your cigarette. You are putting us all in danger. Put it out!" repeated John. "And pass the word, the next person I catch smoking anywhere will be put on report and could be kicked out of expelled from the group."

With this, John stormed off hoping he had gotten his point across.

When he finally felt it was safe, John led the first patrol out. They were all heavily armed and very alert. He knew that he could not let his emotions distract him from what had to be done. They had to find where Skynet was building the HKs and destroy it before more could be made. They had plenty of explosives. John decided that his group would follow the HKs and see where they went after their patrols.

They scouted the area for a couple hours before they heard the telltale clank of metal on concrete that meant there were HKs approaching. John motioned for the others to take cover. They watched as a group of 8 HKs passed them. As soon as they were a safe distance away, John's patrol began to quietly follow them. The HKs searched until just before daylight before they paused. John thought they had been discovered and motioned for his patrol to get under cover. The HKs started walking again, this time they did not appear to be searching for anyone. Their pace increased until they were difficult to keep up with without being heard.

"I think they are headed back to their base." whispered John.

They followed them to a large, brightly lit structure several miles from the subway tunnels. It was the only building standing in the area. There were so many HKs guarding it that John didn't bother trying to count them all. They watched the factory for a few minutes, and then quiet made their way back to the tunnels.

John called a meeting for early the next morning to discuss their find. He wanted to get input from Colonel Perry as to how they should plan their attack. John drew a quick layout of the building, along with the various ways in which they could approach it. After discussing all of their options thoroughly, Colonel Perry suggested that they attack on a night when they were having a heavy rainstorm. Skynet might not expect anything on a stormy night, and the noise from the rain could cover their approach. They had made quite a supply of plastic explosives. These used along with the grenade launchers would cause quite a bit of damage.

They got everything ready, now all they had to do was wait for a rainy night. Since Judgment Day the weather had been very unpredictable. Storms were more frequent and more severe. It shouldn't be too long before they had a night that was perfect for their attack. A little over a week after they discovered Skynet's factory, a storm blew in off of the Pacific. If the rain and wind didn't mask any noise they made, the thunder and lightning would.

John and Colonel Perry led the group of 25 men and women. Each person involved in the attack carried 5 pipes packed with plastic explosive, and either a grenade launcher or a high power rifle. Colonel Perry has told them to surround the facility and move when they saw him wave a flag. They arrived at the factory just after midnight. The storm was extremely fierce when they arrived at their destination. Everyone took their places while John stayed back and watched them prepare for battle. There were very few HKs out in the storm. John wasn't sure if this was because they didn't expect humans to be out in this weather, or if the HKs were not advanced enough to be out in the storm. He briefly wondered what would happen if a HK got hit by lightning?

When everyone was in place, Colonel Perry signaled, and they made their move. Ten people made their way closer to the factory with their pipe bombs. They sheltered their fuses from the rain, lit them, and threw the bombs. Ten more ran forward with their bombs while the first group covered them with grenades and automatic rifle fire. Explosions rocked the night and lit up the sky, while HKs poured out of the buildings and turned their weapons on their attackers. Screams of humans being killed mixed with the explosions at the factory and noises from the storm. John watched in horror as people he had known and worked with were killed. They lost 14 people that night, but managed to severely damage Skynet's factory and destroy at least 46 HKs.

They broke up into small groups to make it more difficult for Skynet to follow them, and made their way back to the subway. They covered the entrances and posted extra sentries. If by chance any HKs had followed them back, they would need to be ready.

They passed an uneventful night. John decided that they should stay underground for a few days and nights. This would give Skynet a chance to look around for their attackers.


	9. Chapter 9

A week passed and John decided that it would be safe to resume their night time patrols. The patrols would be limited to 6 patrols with 2 people per group. They saw several HK patrols, but did not try to destroy them. John was hoping that Skynet would lower its guard if the patrols returned safely. Hopefully it would think most of the humans had been killed in the attack on the factory.

The group held daily meetings to decide where the patrols should go, who should go out and whether or not they should send groups out of the city to find survivors. After talking with Colonel Perry, John decided that they should send a group led by Patrick Brooks south towards San Diego. There would be 4 people in the group. They would leave in one week and travel on foot. Carlos would also lead a group into Mexico to see is they could find food.

The two groups left just after dark, hoping to be able to get well away from Los Angeles before daybreak. After traveling for almost two weeks they came across a small town on the outskirts of what had been San Diego. Carlos' group left the others and made their way into Mexico. Patrick's group made their way cautiously into the town, hopeful that they would find some sign of human life.

"Stay on your toes. If there are any people here, they probably have guards posted somewhere, and they might not be too trusting. They might also attack to steal our weapons and supplies" Patrick cautioned remembering the attack by Silas' group.

Just as he finished speaking, a voice called out, "Stop where you are and identify yourselves, and don't try anything we have you surrounded."

"My name is Patrick Brooks. This is Emily Gordon, Gus Hadley, and Mark McBride. We are from Los Angeles."

"What are you doing here?" asked the unseen person.

"We are scouting for survivors." answered Patrick.

"Stay where you are." ordered the sentry.

Six heavily armed people approached Patrick's group. One held the leash of a large, unpleasant looking dog. The dog sniffed each person, and when it did not react, the men lowered their weapons.

"Sorry about that, but you can't be too careful. Last month we had a bunch of robot looking things come in here. They were all dressed like people, but when our sentries got close they could see they were machines. They killed most of them before we could react. We destroyed them, but we figured there are more out there so we don't take chances now."

"No problem, we understand." replied Emily.

"We'd better get undercover." cautioned one of the men. "We can make our introductions then."

Patrick's group followed them to a badly damaged building. They entered it and then descended the stairs to a lower level. It was dark, and damp, Patrick could smell the mustiness and hear the constant drip of water. The tiny room was very crowded. There were roughly 65 people hiding there, including a dozen children. None of the people looked like they had a decent meal in a long time.

The man who had been doing all of the talking began to introduce people. "My name is Alex Salinas; this is Miguel Rojas, Lydia Woodard, Sylvia Vazquez, Max Phelps and Norman Blake."

After the introductions were made, Patrick briefly told them why they were there. It didn't take much to convince the group to return to Los Angeles with them. They were almost out of food, ammunition and medical supplies.

It only took a couple days to get ready for the trip. The trip back to L.A. was uneventful, but once they actually got to the city they realized they had problems. There were twice as many HK patrols out. They decided to break up into smaller groups, each one being led by a member of Patrick's patrol. Patrick led the first group, taking half of the children with him. It took over two hours to get all of the groups past Skynet's patrols. They could only travel a short distance, and then they would have to hide from the patrols. As soon as they were all safely underground, Patrick introduced them to John and the others. They settled them into sleeping quarters, and then made sure they all got something to eat. Once again, John began to worry about supplies for this large group of people. He had over 200 people that he was responsible for. Carole Phillips had some success with growing vegetables in the tunnels, but not enough to feed everyone. He knew that the supply of MREs that Colonel Perry brought would be a great help too, but they needed real food, especially for the children. He had to keep these people healthy and strong if they were going to be able to fight Skynet.

At the nightly meeting Patrick told John about their trip, and how they had found the newest group of survivors. After telling about their trip, Patrick asked John about the number of HKs patrolling the area.

"Not long after you left the patrols started increasing, they had them out night and day, firing on anything that moved. Our patrols have had to be very careful. We managed to destroy a few bipeds, but we also lost 3 people. They are using more airborne HKs, and all of them are equipped with infrared scanners so they can find us even in the dark." explained John. "The factory we hit just before you left has not resumed production. My guess is that Skynet has other factories somewhere. We need to find those factories and shut them down too."

Colonel Perry stood up, "I agree. We need to follow the HKs and see where they are coming from. It will be difficult though, with the extra patrols, and the fact that Skynet knows we will try to find their other factories."

A few nights later Carlos' group returned from Mexico. They brought pull carts loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables. They also brought 11 people who wanted to join their group. Kate was elated to have fresh food for the children, John was happy to have more soldiers.

They spent the next few days making more pipe bombs and planning strategies. John and Kate decided that patrols would be sent out again at night to see if they could locate other factories. Each patrol would consist of two people, heavily armed and ready to follow the HKs to their base. The newest arrivals would be given time to regain their strength before they were sent out.


	10. Chapter 10

The first group of patrols went out the following night. At first they were so busy trying not to be detected that they could not follow the HKs. After a few nights their tactics improved and they were able to follow the HKs while they were on patrol. After following them for several miles, Kevin Hale and Lisa Parker finally arrived at the factory. They watched from a distance for about an hour; making notes about how many HKs they saw, where there were shadows that would allow them to approach the factory, and anything else that would help in their attack. Then they made their way home, making sure they knew how to get back to the factory with a larger, better armed group.

John and Kate were waiting up for Kevin and Lisa when they finally arrived back at the tunnels.

"Where have you two been?" Kate asked.

"We followed some HKs back to their factory. It's about half an hour from here. We drew a diagram of it, listed how many HKs we saw, and listed all of the best ways to approach it." explained Kevin.

"Good job!" exclaimed John. "We need to decide which night to attack, and how many people should do it."

"I don't think it should be a stormy night this time. They might expect that." added Kate.

"I agree." said John.

The next night John took a patrol led by Kevin and Lisa to the factory to see how many people should be in on the attack. Each person carried a piece of tarp or a plastic sheet to hide under so the HKs with infrared would not see them from the air. John and his patrol watched the factory for about half an hour before they returned to the tunnels to make their plans.

They waited almost two weeks to attack the factory, until there was a heavy early morning fog. Ten groups went out, with 3 people in each group. They left at 5 minute intervals so they would not all be in one group if they were caught by HKs. John took Alex Salinas with him. He was new to the battle, but John felt he had great potential and needed to be trained by him.

The fog was thick when they arrived at the factory. The lights gave it an eerie appearance, making it difficult to see their target. John was glad they had studied the layout when the weather was clear. They could barely make out the HKs going about their duties. Each group had an assigned place where they were to wait for the time for attack. John's group was going to attack first, and then all of the other groups would attack. Just before he attacked, he heard human screams and gunfire. At first he thought some of his people were under attack, but then he realized that the screams were coming from the factory. He tried to see what was going on through the fog, but it was difficult to make out what was happening. He could see HKs moving about, and when an occasional breeze would clear the fog somewhat he could see that they were forcing humans up against a wall, and then shooting them. John hesitated for a few seconds, unsure whether he should try to rescue these people or continue with the original plans to destroy the factory. The decision was taken out of his hands when the last scream faded and the HKs brought out no more humans. John and his group crept closer to the factory, lit their fuses and threw their pipe bombs. The explosions rocked the factory. The HKs barely had time to react before the other groups made their attacks.

The factory exploded in flames. Lightning like bolts of electricity crackled between the metal towers of the factory. The HKs that were not destroyed began firing into the darkness, trying to kill as many of their attackers as possible. Once again, John heard the sound of human screams. He could not let this affect him, because had known he would loose people tonight.

"Let's go." he said to his group.

"But what about the others?" asked Alex.

"They knew what they were getting into when they agreed for this mission. No one is indispensable."

Once again the groups all had orders to head back to the tunnels in different directions so they would be more difficult to track.

John's group arrived at the subway base roughly three hours after they attacked Skynet's factory. Two other groups were already there, along with the survivors from three other groups. Not long after John's group got back, Elijah Brown and Julie Baker returned. They reported that there were no other survivors. They had lost 17 people in the attack on Skynet's factory.

John and Kate decided that they needed to split their group into two or three groups so that if they were attacked, they would not loose everyone. They sent scouts out to find other tunnels or sewer systems. It only took a few days before they found what they needed. Less than a mile from their current base, they found two sections of subway that were not connected to their tunnels and could be used for shelter. Both were much smaller than their current shelter, so they decided to only send 30 people to each base. It took them several days to get everyone moved and settled, but it made them feel more secure to have people spread out in different locations. All three shelters were provided with walkie-talkies so they could keep in touch with each other. Alex Salinas would be in charge of base number 2 and David Perry would be in charge of base number 3.

John knew that they would need more people for their fight against Skynet. Alex thought that he knew where they could find more recruits for their battle. He remembered a group of people that he had talked to a year or so before he and his friends joined John's team. They were headed to Mexico where the damage had been less severe. He volunteered to lead a team to go find them. John agreed to let him take a group of 5 people to search for more survivors. They couldn't spare more than that in case something went wrong.

Alex's group left three days later. They arrived in Mexico two weeks after that. It took them less than a week to find a group of almost 100 survivors. It only took a few minutes to convince them to return to Los Angeles with them. The return trip took over a month; since they had such a large group traveling was difficult without being detected.

John was elated when he saw how many people Alex brought back. Kate was happy to see that the new people had fruits, vegetables and dried fish to add to the supplies. The children would get the fresh foods first since they were still growing.

John began to train the newest members of their forces. Kate taught them to make pipe bombs. While Alex had been gone a patrol had found another factory. John had already made sketches of the factory, and they had been busy planning their latest attack. John divided his people up into 5 groups with 5 people in each group. Once again they were heavily armed with pipe bombs and rifles that fired armor piercing rounds. The groups left at 5 minute intervals and arranged themselves where John had told them to be. This time the attack did not go as planned. John had decided to start firing the armor piercing rounds, and then use the pipe bombs, while the HKs were distracted. Unfortunately they were expected. As soon as they started firing, HKs that were waiting for them began to fire on them with plasma rifles. John's people didn't have time to use any of their pipe bombs. The soldiers knew to retreat if they were fired upon. They also knew not to head back to the main bases. Instead, they would go to the tunnels that Elijah's group had occupied. The three surviving members of John's group arrived there a few hours after their aborted attack. They waited for other survivors. Out of the 25 troops who were sent out, only 11 survived. Among those John had lost Julie Baker, Patrick Brooks, Dana Neely, and Eddie Carmichael.

Before they had time to do anything, an explosion rocked the entrance to the tunnel. "It's Skynet!" he shouted. "We have to get out of here!"

He and his soldiers headed for the air vent that opened into the parking garage. Hopefully Skynet had not found this one. They made their way cautiously out of the subway. There was no evidence of Skynet at this exit.

"Break up into pairs and make your way back to the tunnels. Take your time; make sure you are not followed. If you think that there is a chance you are being watched or followed, don't go back to the base. We can't afford to take a chance that Skynet will find our home bases." ordered John.

It took him almost 2 hours to get back to the subway tunnels. He stopped several times to listen and see if he was being followed. He even hid in the rubble of a parking garage for 20 minutes. Convinced that it was safe, he entered the tunnels through a back entrance. He immediately headed towards the meeting room. He had only been there a few minutes when Kate came into the room. He told her what had happened, and that the whole thing had been a trap.

As he was explaining what had happened, Alex entered the room. He had been one of the survivors from that evening's disastrous attempt on the factory. "Is anyone else back?" he asked.

"Not yet, the rest should be back soon." replied John.

Kate put her arms around John, grateful that he had made it back safely.

Later that night, when they were alone, they talked about the events of that day.

"We have to keep fighting. We can't let this stop us." John told her.

"They will be expecting us to attack their factories." Kate replied.

"Then we have to come up with a new strategy. We can send less people to take out the factories. We can't stop fighting or Skynet will win."


	11. Chapter 11

John and Kate called a meeting for the following morning. Word had already gotten around about what had happened the previous evening. The people in the tunnels were angry and wanted to plan another attack against Skynet. John knew that they needed to be cautious, and not act in anger. Attacks made in anger would cost lives. They mapped out strategies for attacking Skynet at their meeting.

The attacks continued, sometimes the humans won, sometimes Skynet won. They lost people; they found people to add to their group, children were born and grew up to fight. They found new places to hide. John and Kate had two more children; Robert, after Kate's father, and Evan, which means young warrior. James Perry was killed when a Terminator managed to infiltrate one of the tunnels. Kyle felt the greatest sense of loss since Colonel Perry had been like a father to him. His loss was made worse when his mother died of a heart attack in her sleep soon after this attack.

Skynet continued to manufacture HKs, and it learned how to build Terminators. This continued for over 25 years. Through all these years, John Conner kept a careful eye on Kyle Reese. He knew he had to send him on missions, but tried not to send him on any that were too dangerous. Kyle was too important to loose. When Kyle had turned 21 John gave him the picture of his mother. John wasn't sure what he would tell Kyle if he asked him why he gave him the picture; fortunately Kyle was so overwhelmed he didn't think to ask.

They continued to have patrols sent out to destroy the HKs. Skynet had developed a new type of Terminator. This model had skin and looked just like humans. Fortunately Max, Jada and Cleo had produced several generations of dogs that were very good at spotting the Terminators. Late one night, just after Kyle's patrol had returned to the tunnels they were infiltrated by a Terminator. They had taken refuge in base number three since there was an unusually large number of HKs out that night. Kyle had just settled in to get some rest when the Terminator entered the base. The dogs began barking. Before they could defend themselves, the machine began firing. Several people were killed immediately. Panic broke out; inhabitants of the refuge began scrambling for an exit. Bullets hit a container of fuel, causing it to explode. Fire engulfed everything in sight including several people. In his haste to get out, Kyle dropped his photograph of Sarah that he had been looking at. It burst into flames and burned before he could react. He was devastated by the fact that he had lost this treasured picture. He fired on the Terminator, damaging, but not destroying it. Seeing that he was not going to be able to destroy the machine, he followed the others out the emergency exit.

"Scramble!" he shouted to the other survivors, knowing they would now head for whatever shelter they could find. He headed to the building where there was access to the base Elijah's group had abandoned. He would not lead the Terminator to the main tunnels.

The attacks against Skynet continued. Intelligence information gathered from scouts let them know that Skynet had built a new factory just a few miles from the tunnels. John and Daniel Perry planned a full scale attack on the facility. Thirty people would attack just after midnight. They arrived at the facility only to discover that it was not a factory, but a disposal camp. There were HKs everywhere; they had walked into a trap. Over half of their people were killed outright. A few escaped, the rest were rounded up and put in the camp. John, Daniel Perry, and Kyle Reese were forced into the extermination camp. At first they thought they were going to be tortured for information. They were taken into a large room filled with menacing looking machines. They were told to remove their shirts so that identification numbers could be burned into their arms with lasers.

Since they were strong, able bodied men, they were put to work loading bodies into the furnace. John was overwhelmed with concern about Kate and the children. Had they been found or were they still safe in the tunnels? He knew that she must be very worried about him too.

Back in the tunnel the few people that had escaped told Kate what had happened to the rest of the patrol. 

"Where is John?" asked Kate.

"We don't know for sure. The last we saw him he, Kyle Reese, Daniel Perry, and a few others were alive and surrounded by HKs."

Even though the children all had separate sleeping areas, they stayed with Kate that night. Kate didn't sleep at all that night. All she could do was watch her children sleep and worry about John. She knew that he wasn't _supposed_ to die yet, that according to one timeline he was killed by a terminator on July 4th 2032. She also knew that she was in charge now; she didn't have the luxury of spending her time worrying about John.

The next morning she called everyone to a meeting and sent messengers to the other bases to let them know about the meeting.

"You all know that last night we lost a lot of people when we attacked what we thought was Skynet's factory. Instead it was an extermination camp. You've probably all heard rumors about who we lost. Well, let me set things straight. John Conner, Colonel Perry and Kyle Reese are among the missing. I don't know if they are dead or have been captured to work in the extermination camp. For the time being, I am in charge. You will all follow my orders. Are there any questions?" She stood tall and looked each person in the eye, letting them know that she would not tolerate any arguments.

No one said a thing for a few seconds, and then David Perry stood and saluted her, letting her know that she had the support of everyone present.

At the extermination camp John, Daniel and Kyle were kept busy loading the bodies of murdered humans into the disposal units. They were fed just enough to keep them alive. No one dared to complain, the last person who had done that was killed for it. The disposal units were kept running night and day, so they were allowed only a few hours of sleep each day.

Some of the humans were being taken into a large building in the center of the compound. None of them ever came back. There were rumors about what was going on in that building; some said that Skynet was experimenting on humans; others said they were torturing them. John wondered if this was where the time displacement equipment was. It was heavily guarded and there were times when strange lights, sounds and waves of lightning like energy came from it. He knew that he was running out of time and would have to act fast if he wanted to be able to send Kyle back in time to save his mother.

They had been in the extermination camp for just under 4 months when John came up with an idea for escaping. They were not allowed to talk to each other so they had to come up with another way to communicate. They had used sign language to communicate while they were working so the terminators and HKs would not hear them, so they put this to use when they were allowed to rest.

John decided that Skynet thought the humans were too weak and broken in spirit to plan anything. It was wrong. John knew that if he could get everyone to attack at the same time, they had a decent chance of escaping.

While he worked, John watched the patrols along the fences to see if there were any weak spots, anyplace they were vulnerable. It took another 6 weeks before he found a place where he believed they could make their escape. Near the rear of one of the disposal units, there was an area that was dark. John decided that if enough people attacked this section of the fence they could break out. Later, after they got more help they could destroy the disposal units, and when the time came, they could attack the time displacement equipment. He let Daniel and Kyle know what his plan was, and asked them to pass the word. A week later, they were all ready to make their move. Late one night, when it was cloudy so it would be even darker. They all were carrying bodies across the compound, trying to get as close to the fence as possible. Each person involved also had tried to find something to use as a weapon; a bar, board or rock. When they had as many people near the fence as possible, John gave the signal and they attacked. John had found a metal bar, about a foot long, and hid it in the clothing of the body he was moving. He used it to break through a section of the fence. The other people with him used whatever they could to help him break through. The HKs and terminators did not expect them to try to escape. Skynet was convinced that it had the humans broken. They knew they only had a few seconds to break through the fence before they were fired upon, so they had to make every second count. The wire on the fence was tough, but they were able to break through just as the HKs began to fire. Out of the fifteen people that were in on the attack, five were killed outright, three more were wounded. John, Kyle and Daniel managed to escape the camp and headed back to the tunnels taking the other survivors with them.

They arrived at the tunnels nearly three hours after they escaped. The sentries on duty held them at gunpoint until the dogs could be brought out to verify that they were humans, and not terminators designed to look like John, Kyle and the Daniel.

When they arrived in the meeting room they were surrounded by people who were overjoyed to see them. John was in the middle of introducing the seven people with him when Kate rushed into the room.

"Oh my God, you are alive!" she cried out as she rushed to him, throwing herself into his arms. She hugged him tightly, crying in relief.

She stepped back and looked at him, astonished by how thin and tired he looked. 

"What happened to you?" Kate asked, amazed at how thin and haggard he looked.

"We attacked what we thought was a factory, but it was an extermination camp. They were waiting for us. They killed most of our people, the rest of us they captured and put us to work loading bodies into the furnaces. We finally figured out how to escape. Kate, I think they have developed the time displacement equipment. We are going to have to go back and destroy it."

While they were talking Emily Gordon and Lisa Parker brought them something to eat and drink. While they were eating Kate told them everything that had been going on while they were gone. A few moments later Sarah, Robert and Evan hurried into the room.

"Dad, you are back!"

John stood and hugged his children, holding them closely for several minutes. He was so grateful to be home with his family.

He sat down and finished his food and then told Kate he needed to get some rest. They agreed that they would hold a meeting the following morning to let everyone know what was going on.

When he and Kate got to their room, the first thing he did was clean up and changed his clothes. He told her everything that had happened to him, and she told him what had been going on in their battles against Skynet.

"We didn't know if you were dead, or if you had been captured, so I took over. I decided that we should break up into three more camps so that if we were attacked we wouldn't loose as may people. Each camp has two dogs to identify terminators. One night, about a month ago, a group from camp number two was on patrol. They had destroyed 3 HKs and probably got too confident. They were followed back to their base by a Terminator. It got in before the dogs could bark. We lost 16 people that night. We closed part of that base, and opened a different entrance to it so the Terminators would think it had been abandoned. We've lost a total of 48 people, but we have destroyed 32 HKs and 2 terminators since you have been gone. Billy Kincaid and Daniel Perry have been very helpful. I don't know if I could have done it without them"

John was impressed by the job she had done while he was gone. Kate truly was his co-leader. He had missed her so much, and worried about her while he was gone. He was so exhausted by his ordeals of the past several months that he fell asleep almost as soon as he was in bed.

They awoke early the next morning, ate breakfast and headed for the meeting room.

Everyone was excited about welcoming back the three men, and about meeting the new people. John gave them a brief account of what had happened and let them know that they would have to attack what he believed was the time displacement equipment. He told them that he had information that led him to believe that Skynet was going to send a Terminator through to kill Sarah Conner before John could be born. He asked for volunteers to follow it to protect her. He was relieved to see that Kyle was one of the volunteers. He acted as if he was thinking about who to send, and then he chose Kyle.

"Kyle, I think you are the best man for this job."

Kyle was surprised and honored to be chosen for this important assignment. For some reason he felt a special closeness to John. He had been like a father to him since his own father had been killed when he was very young.

They began planning how they would attack the extermination camp, and how they would gain access to the building that held the time displacement equipment. They had over 180 men and women trained to fight, and they were going to need all of them to succeed in their attack.

John planned the attack for one week after they returned from the extermination camp. This would give Kyle time to rest and gain his strength back. John took this opportunity to brief Kyle on his mission and to give him a message to memorize to give to his mother.

On the night of the attack John broke his troops up into 10 groups and sent them out at 2 minute intervals. They were all armed with pipe bombs, grenade launchers, plasma rifles they had been able to steal, shotguns and high power rifles. They attacked the fence in nearly the same place where they had broken out. John led the attack, with Kyle following him closely. Skynet was not expecting anyone to try to break into the camp so they had the advantage of surprise. They made it through the fence without any casualties, but when they tried to break into the building with the time displacement equipment, they met with much greater resistance. HKs began firing on them, killing many of their soldiers. They were able to blast holes in the walls with grenades. Their troops stormed the building, destroying Terminators and HKs with the plasma rifles.

The prisoners in the camp took the opportunity to fight the HKs with anything they could find, trying to help in the battle. John lit the fuse on a pipe bomb and then threw it next to the door, blowing it open so his group could go in.

As they rushed into the building, John paused to look around. They were standing in a large room with a lot of complicated looking equipment in the middle. Just then, a large, familiar looking naked man finished rubbing something on his skin and then stepped onto a platform. It was the first Terminator, the one who was being sent back to kill his mother. Electricity crackled around him, and then he vanished. It was the time displacement equipment. John's soldiers continued to fire on the HKs at the machine, destroying as many as they could.

"Block the doors with something so we can figure this out!" he shouted.

Several of the men shoved some large packing crates in front of the doors and braced them with their bodies.

"Do you think we can figure this out?" asked John.

"We don't have a choice. We have to send Kyle back; they have already sent their Terminator."

They approached the machine, hoping they could figure it out. 

"I want everyone but Daniel Perry and Kyle to watch our backs while we figure this thing out." John ordered.

He looked over the dials and switches and realized that it probably had the correct settings programmed into it. All he would have to do is activate it again. Turning to Kyle he said, "Alright soldier, you know what you have to do."

There was a large vat of slimy looking liquid near the equipment. John ordered Kyle to strip and smear it all over him so that his skin would not burn while he was traveling through time.

After following John's orders, Kyle stepped onto the platform and looked at John for the last time.

John looked at Kyle and then activated the machine. Electricity crackled around Kyle, John felt a tremendous blast of hot wind, and then Kyle vanished. John knew that he would never see Kyle again either.

"Good-bye, Dad." He whispered under his breath.


End file.
